2015 Riesling

Price: $18

When you breathe in the rich aromatics of this Riesling your senses may convince you that you are walking in a garden full of blossoming gardenia flowers, where apricots warm in the summer sun. Upon tasting you realize that the imaginary apricots have dried; concentrating the natural sweetness and revealing subtle notes of green apple and honeysuckle as well.

 

 

Winemaker: Stephen Cary & Ariel Eberle

AVA: McMinnville

Vineyard Composition: 100% Yamhill Valley Estate, Triangle and Barn Block

Harvest:

Picked: October 21, 2015

Yield: 2.02 Tons / Acre

Brix: 25.2

pH: 3.01

TA: 8.25 g/L

Fermentation:

Fermented in Stainless Steel

42 days

Aging:

4 months in Stainless Steel

Bottling:

March 14, 2016

TA: 8.25 g/L

pH: 3.01

Residual Sugar: 8.5%

Alcohol: 9.7%

Vineyard:

We are the second oldest vineyard in the McMinnville AVA, which is known for having intense, enduring wines. Some of our topsoils were brought here over 15,000 years ago in the Missoula floods, which makes this area incredibly unique. We have the perfect climate, being in the rain-shadow of the Coastal Foothills, with winds that form from the Van Duzer corridor, and western facing sloping hillsides. All of this makes for unique wines of quality grown 100% from our Estate.

Vintage:

2015 was the warmest year on record in the Willamette Valley; bud break started in mid-March, and a warm spring supported vine growth in preparation for flowering and fruit set, which again were both earlier than usual.  The early start in spring was followed by a warm dry summer, which gave winegrowers flexibility to pick earlier than usual, and make call based solely on perfect ripeness and flavor development in mid September before rain and birds arrived.  2015 was a stellar and rare Oregon growing season.

Winemaking:

Grapes were hand-picked and delivered to the crush pad where they were meticulously hand sorted, and pressed over an extended time to extract maxiumum sugar and flavor from the fruit. Juice was settled overnight, and then racked and inoculated. Slow, cool fermentation encourages a full bouquet and complex flavors, this fermentation went on for 42 days, at which point the wine was chilled and sulfured to stop fermentation.